Nasal Breathing and Other Boondoggles

For the first two weeks of my training program, I tried out the nasal breathing method. It is supposed to improve your oxygen use and be somehow better for you. But the moment I abandoned the technique, my three mile run time improved by not less than 5 minutes. Maybe this is because of the nasal breathing method, but this is not something I will be sticking with this season. And what a relief, really. It's like suddenly being able to use both legs after hopping around for a month.

My Swedish goggles, on the other hand, are excellent. And all other aspects of the training program I'm following is working nicely. I've been training three weeks, but I'm only on week two still since I'm only training 4-5 days a week, rather than the six prescribed. No Way that's happening. I keep hitting the exhaustion wall, but have arrived at a possible solution, which is working out two days and then one day off, which actually works out to five days a week working out (two workouts per day). The fatigue just builds and builds, so maybe this will break it up a bit. I'm a 9-10 hour a night sleeper, which is a serious limiter, but having known myself these lo 40 years, I have reconciled myself to this unfortunate fact.

I've decided to increase my weightlifting regimen for the simple fact that I really enjoy lifting weights. I will try to throw in a couple of plyometric drills in, but I'm starting to think I'm adding too much new stuff. If I spend my whole season learning new techniques and methods, I'm not going to get a whole lot of actual training. It's a balancing act. I'll be down to two workouts per week per sport, with four weight sessions per week, while still following the training plan mostly. I will just do all the training sessions prescribed in order and see where I end up as the season progresses. I don't want to skip ahead as this has caused me some of my various joint injuries in past seasons. I'm fairly certain that I was progressing too rapidly in the past without realizing it.

It's still early in the season, but I'm definitely feeling very good this season. I've also signed up for a swimming class and have learned that I don't kick when I swim. At all, pretty much. We did kick drills for a total of about 16 laps, which is more kicking than I've ever done, I'm surprised I was even able to do it. Presumably, I should be a speed demon by the time the race season starts and swimming is my strongest event anyway. Which is a shame, biking would be a better sport to be strongest in, but we don't choose the cards we're dealt, we just play them to best advantage.